Floridian Swamp in Lucca

Conducted completely in Italian, today we joined Susanna (our teacher and environmentalist) to explore the Alberi Monumentali (monumental trees) in our neighborhood, literally. We started at the Villa Bottini, which is nextdoor to our apartment. Our windows look down into the garden, in fact, my laundry was hanging out above our heads- although photogenic, I refrained from photographing my underwear hanging on the line. I’m sitting on the steps of the villa in my profile picture - with a Spritz. The Villa was built in 16th c in “countryside” outside the medieval walls as a Party house for Buonavisi family (a huge Ballroom, no bedrooms), Elisa Bonaparte bought the house in 19th c and planted a bunch of camellias. She started the Botanical Garden down the block in 1814, but she was run out of town, so it was finished by Maria Louise of Bourbon. After viewing the immense Plane tree and Cypress at Villa we headed to the Botanic Garden. The Orto Botanico has mostly exotic plants, some of which have become rare in their place of origin. Today’s photo is the Bald Cypress from the Florida swamplands that overlooks the pond. The roots rise up escaping the anoxic mud to get a breath of fresh air, creating a odd phallic mini landscape. There is also a Cedar of Lebanon that is so giant it is leaning like the Tower of Pisa and needs to be held up. The three Redwoods made us nostalgic for Santa Cruz. We finished tour of trees just outside the Orto up on Le Mura (the wall), one of which is a very tall Monterey Cypress! Its growth habit is totally different on the windy coast of Monterey Bay!